


The Future Is Never Bright

by pennedgalaxy



Series: A Game Never To Be Won [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: M/M, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 08:24:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3349943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennedgalaxy/pseuds/pennedgalaxy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harrison hissed and avoided Barry's eyes as he slammed a hand on the table, the impact sent what remained of their chess game to the floor. As the pieces scattered it occurred to both Harrison and Barry that there would be no winner, not tonight or any other. </p><p>"We can't, Barry. End of discussion. We just...can't."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Future Is Never Bright

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing for The Flash fandom so I hope you like it, anyway!

Barry paced the room at a speed that most would consider fast, since the accident Barry had come to consider such a speed slow, not annoying or irritating, only slow in the grand scheme of just how fast he could go. Waiting wasn't easy but for him it had become second nature despite what he was now, before all of this he had been accustom to waiting, that hadn't changed despite everything, years of conditioning couldn't be undone in only a couple of months.

Barry heaved a sigh but stopped half way when he heard a familiar noise, the very same one that echoed through the halls of STAR labs every time Harrison Wells so much as moved a fraction of an inch.

"Barry, what can I do for you this fine evening?"

Barry blinked quicker than the human eye and used several milliseconds in super speed to think of an adequate reply. "Uh, something, maybe? I don't know." Not exactly the best reply he could have come up with, but it was his reply none the less.

There was just something about Dr. Wells that made Barry inarticulate and perhaps a little bit needy.

Harrison simply raised an eyebrow at the young man, his glasses framing his face handsomely.

"Nicely worded." He told him with a smile that was half smirk.

Barry laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. "I was, actually, I was hoping maybe we could do something? You know, uh, together? "

Harrison tilted his head and smiled in Barry's direction, he hadn't quite expected such a turn of events. "What did you have in mind, Mr. Allen?"

Barry coughed into his sleeve and discreetly rolled his head to look around the room, luckily for him no one was around. "We could try chess? I mean, chess could be good, I'm probably going to lose, but I think I'd like that. Not losing, but playing against, no,  _with_ you. But obviously not in a weird way and not like _that_ -"

Harrison shook his head in amusement. "Of course I'll play with you, Barry."

Barry grinned sheepishly. "Good because the whole, me talking thing, wasn't going so well."

Harrison gave a half smile and set up the chess board, the same one he'd used all those times before with Hartley. He sighed when he thought too deeply about it, despite having caused the collapse of Hartley's and his...relationship, he still regretted the decision. Either way his plans for the future hadn't changed, in fact they were currently staring him in the face with big blue eyes.

"Black or white?"

"White." Barry told the other man simply.

Harrison smiled as he spun the board around, there was a certain irony to that, he saw all too clearly.

Barry locked eyes with Harrison as he moved his left corner pawn forward two spaces. “I’ve been wondering, for a while actually, Dr. Wells, why Central city? Why set up a lab here?"

Harrison chuckled and moved one of his knights forward. "For many, _many_ different reasons. I think the better question is, why stay?"

Barry nodded, moving another pawn forward. "Okay, why stay then? Bludhaven despite its reputation could've used a STAR labs, probably more people there too."

Harrison hummed and moved one of his bishops. "Well, I suppose Central city has a certain kind of allure? A certain heady atmosphere when it isn't bustling with people. In my early days I saw a revolution explode before my eyes, figuratively I mean. Everything began here in one way or another, leaving would have been...difficult to say the least."

"So you saw the city's potential?" Barry questioned.

Harrison shrugged and gave a brief nod.

"You're good at that, seeing the potential of things, people. Maybe it's your superpower?" Barry added with a grin.

Wells smirked when Barry moved one of his knights to catch an errant pawn of his. "Oh, Mr. Allen, you have _no idea_."

" _O_ _h, I think I do_."

"Oh?" Harrison raised an eyebrow as he leaned back in his wheel chair and moved his queen to capture one of Barry's bishops. "I am interested to hear your opinion on the matter."

"I think you're waiting for something to happen." Barry paused as he fingered the crown of his king. "I think you're waiting for something that might've _already_ have happened."

"Interesting hypothesis." Harrison paused and looked over the top of his glasses at Barry. "Do you know what we do with a hypothesis?"

Barry smiled and tipped his own king over. "Test it?" He questioned before flinging himself over the table at Wells.

Their lips connected with enough force to split an atom. It was like watching two opposing forces collide, everything, all of their kinetic energy and sexual tension came together in a twisting of tongues and the press of lips to pinkly flushed lips.

Barry pulled away quick as lightening, his eyes were dazed and from his lips a string of saliva still connected them, however briefly. "Shit, sorry. That was, that was sudden wasn't it? I've ruined everything haven't I-"

Harrison smiled softly, almost secretly, to himself and grabbed Barry by the jaw, his other hand resting on his cheek. "Perhaps not."

Barry exhaled softly and time slowed to an almost halt, for a moment in real time he savoured the feeling of Harrison's hands touching his skin, for him it felt like a small eternity. Slowing down again time came back in quick spurts. "Can you stop being vague, please? Is this a thing? Are we a we? No, an us? Are we an _us_? Because I want us to be an _us_."

"Eloquent as always." Harrison remarked as his thumb traced Barry's lips, the digit wetting itself with the remnants of their kiss.

Barry's eyelashes fluttered as he leaned into the touch. "You're still not answering my question."

Harrison smirked; his expression was wistful but somehow somber as he tilted Barry's head toward him. "Do I ever, _truly_?"

"Then how's about this." Barry began. "What do you _want_?"

Harrison's smiled dimmed and his hand felt cold where it lay against Barry's cheek. "What I _want_ and what I _can_ _have_ are two different things."

"You say that like the two are mutually exclusive."

Harrison closed his eyes and sighed. "They are for _me_."

Barry frowned and leaned away from him. "So you're saying you don't want me? But you just-"

" _Oh_ , I want you, alright. That was never in doubt. But can I have you? Is the question I'm still pondering, it's not a matter of wanting Barry, it's _having_."

"But I'm right here." He told the other man with a sweeping hand gesture. "I'm here and you can have me."

Harrison groaned and placed a hand on one of his wheels, he felt the distant need to escape, if only so he could regain control once again, this situation had gotten completely out of hand. "What I'm asking isn't so simple as that, Barry."

"Then _what_ are you asking? You haven't exactly been _clear_ about it!"

Harrison watched as Barry rose from the table, anger rolling off of him in waves.

"Just give me _something_ , _anything_ , to work with Harrison."

Harrison hissed and avoided Barry's eyes as he slammed a hand on the table, the impact sent what remained of their chess game to the floor. As the pieces scattered it occurred to both Harrison and Barry that there would be no winner, not tonight or any other. "We can't, Barry. End of discussion. We just...can't."

Barry clenched his fists and shook his head. "I, just. I thought, no, it doesn't matter what I thought."

"It does and it doesn't, I'm sorry, truly sorry, Barry, for any hurt that I have caused you. But this thing we have, won't end well, not for anyone."

Barry bowed his head, eyes heavy and brows furrowed. "How can you know that for sure?"

"Barry, I've seen the future and it's never bright."

Barry clenched his fist once again and sped towards the door. "I need to go, I need to go and clear my head."

"Barry-"

"Tell Cisco I'll return his suit tomorrow."

And with a speedy blur the forensic scientist left, leaving Harrison Wells to pick up the pieces of both a chess match gone wrong and a relationship that never was, but _could_ have been.


End file.
